JFK campaign speech in Louisville

President Kennedy in Louisville, Oct. 1962. Photo by R. C. Fuller, The Courier-Journal

Campaigning in the 1962 mid-term elections, President John F. Kennedy came to Louisville on Oct. 13, 1962, to help Kentucky and southern Indiana Democratic lawmakers and Democratic candidates. Here is the text of his remarks, delivered in Freedom Hall at the State Fairgrounds:

Governor Combs; Lieutenant Governor Wilson Wyatt; Congressman Burke; a distinguished congressman from our neighboring state of Indiana, Winfield Denton; my old colleague in the House of Representatives on the Labor and Education Committee, Carl Perkins, from this state; congressmen who are returning from the 87th Congress, Frank Chelf, John Watts, Bill Natcher, and Frank Stubblefield; ladies and gentlemen:

I come here tonight for a very simple purpose, and that is to ask that you elect Frank Burke, Carl Perkins, Wilson Wyatt, and the rest of the Democratic Party to represent the state of Kentucky. Now, some may be wondering why on Saturday night the president of the United States hasn't got something better to do. I don't think there is anything better to do than to come to this state and go around the country and ask for Democrats.

I want to say a word, however, in defense of Wilson Wyatt's opponent. He has been criticized, unfairly, I think, because he has refused to put the word "Republican" on his signs, even though he was once chairman of the Republican Party. But I ask you: If you were a candidate for office in 1962, would you put the word "Republican" on your literature? What does it mean to elect the man? What does he stand for? What party is he a member of? What record has that party written? What does that party believe in 1962? What kind of an American do they want?

They believe, in my opinion, in progress, and, therefore, they must believe in the Democratic Party. Now, here's why they don't write "Republican" on their literature any more: Up in Michigan, the Republican candidate for governor, you don't know what party he belongs to, "Vote For The Man." It's happening all over the United States, and for a very good reason.

In the last 2 years, in the 87th Congress, we had a very good opportunity to see the difference between our two political parties. On the Housing Act of 1961, which provided for urban renewal, housing for the elderly, the widest and most comprehensive housing bill passed in this country in 13 years, 85 percent of the Republican Party in the Congress voted against it.

On the Area Redevelopment Act, which had been around the Congress for 6 years, twice vetoed by the president, written especially for Eastern Kentucky and West Virginia, and parts of Pennsylvania, and southern Illinois, and parts of Indiana, 85 percent of the Republican members of the House of Representatives voted against it.

On the Fair Labor Standards Act to make a minimum wage of $1.25, that's $50 a week, for anyone working in interstate commerce for a business which does a gross volume of a million dollars a year or more, $50 a week - 81 percent of the Republicans voted against it.

That's why the word "Republican" isn't on their literature any more.

On the Peace Corps, which speaks for the best of our country all over the world, 45 percent voted against it. On the urban affairs reorganization, 75 percent of our people live in the cities, they have transit, water, housing, and all the rest of their problems, and we wanted a Cabinet officer to speak for them, 92 percent of the Republicans voted against it. That's what this campaign is all about.

What kind of a Congress is the 88th Congress going to be? Every year since 1930, in the off years, the party in power has lost 39 seats, on the average. Franklin Roosevelt in 1938 lost 77. Every other year, with the exception of 1934, in this century, the party in power loses seats. We have won or lost issues by 4 or 5 votes in the House of Representatives. We lost medical care for the aged under Social Security, a change of 1 vote in the Senate. We lost aid for higher education. And by 1970 you're going to have twice as many people trying to be admitted to our colleges as in 1960, seven-and-a-half million students. And where are they going to go? We had a bill to assist building the colleges and the dormitories. That bill lost by 28 votes, and three-fourths of the Republicans voted against it. That's why I'm here tonight, because I don't want to see the 88th Congress stand still for 2 years in the most difficult and dangerous and also most promising time in the history of our country. That's the issue in this campaign.

The Trade Expansion Act, which makes it possible for this state as much as any state in the Union to sell its goods abroad, tobacco and all the rest, the farmers of this State as well as the manufacturers depend on our ability to move into the European market, 74 percent of the Republicans voted against the key amendments to recommit it to the committee. That's why this is not merely a political campaign. This is a time of decision for the people of this country. The president of the United States, especially on domestic matters, carries out the laws. He does not write them. It is up to the Congress to write them. And the question is: What kind of laws are going to be written? What are we going to do about education, and security for our older citizens, and jobs for our people, and development of our natural resources, and security for our agriculture?

Is this great country of ours, which moved from a recession in 1958 to a recession in '60, which has now too many people out of work - are we going to drift along with a majority of the members of the Congress saying "no" to every proposal that we put forward, and having none of their own? Can you tell me one single piece of constructive legislation that has been suggested in the last 30 years by the Republican Party? Because I can't. I can tell you what they're against, but what are they for? Eighty-one percent of the members of the House of Representatives on the Republican side voted against aid for higher education.

So we won a good many fights and we lost some, and we're going to have some more. But I look at the history of this century and see what happens in off years, and I come here to this state with a great Democratic tradition, having sent great progressive senators and congressmen to the United States Congress, and ask you why Kentucky should be represented by two Republicans. You have a great Republican in John Sherman Cooper who represents the best of his party, and who votes with us when he thinks we're right. But the other Republican never votes with us. You have two Republicans who cancel out each other's vote. Well, I think it's time to send a Democratic senator to speak for a Democratic state, to speak for a Democratic Congress in a Democratic administration, who can stand up and say, "These are the problems of Kentucky. These are the problems of the country." And you have that man in Wilson Wyatt. So I'm asking you to vote for the man and the party, and vote for Wilson Wyatt and Frank Burke, and the rest of the Democratic members.

It is odd that this country, which was wholly founded in a long neutral tradition, and isolationist tradition, should, in 1962, as it has been since 1945, be the great and almost solitary hope for the maintenance of freedom around the world. Everything that we do to strengthen and develop our country means not only a better life for our own people, but also for those hundreds of millions who now stand and look to us and also look to the East.

I believe in a strong America as the greatest defender of freedom. But I have never believed that making strong speeches means a strong country. The fact of the matter is, since 1961 this administration and this Congress have done more in peacetime to strengthen the military and political and social strength of this country than any other administration in history. In the last 20 months we have doubled the number of Polaris submarines, we have added five combat divisions, we have increased by 50 percent the American forces on the ready. We have done all these things. We have made a determined effort to be first in space.

We have done these things not to wage war, but to make it possible for us to maintain the peace. All these people who wave these weapons in the air, not recognizing the dangers through which we now move, they must realize that a strong and continually growing stronger America must build this strength in order to maintain our security, our vital interests, and the peace of the world in the most difficult and dangerous period in the life of our country.

I believe that this can be done. I believe that we can maintain the peace. But I also believe it vitally important that the United States itself continue to move forward. If we move from recession to recession, if we have people in your state who can't find jobs year after year, if we find the Soviet Union steadily increasing its economic growth, if we find Western Europe moving ahead of us at twice the rate of growth that we do, if we find that we have the largest number of unemployed people of any major industrialized country on earth, with the exception of Canada, if we find that we do not in this free society of ours have the secret of being able to maintain our economic vitality at a steadily continuing rate, are all those people who may live in Cyprus or in Latin America or Africa or Asia who must make a judgment as to where the future lies - are they going to decide with us, or are they going to decide that we do not have the answers? And I don't believe that Barry Goldwater or that wing of the Republican Party and those that he supports in 1962 have the answer to these questions.

You have thousands of people in the State of Kentucky who've been out of work for a long time. One month ago we attempted to secure for them supplemental unemployment compensation benefits. We lost that vote in the Ways and Means Committee by a vote of 13 to 12. Every Republican on the Ways and Means Committee voted against it. Area redevelopment, unemployment compensation, development of natural resources, support for agriculture - all these issues which can make the difference to this country, which can build this country stronger that's why we're all here tonight.

I ask your support, the people of Kentucky, in electing a Democratic senator, electing a Democratic Congress, and, together, moving the United States forward in 1962.

In the 1920's, a distinguished French general was talking to his gardener one day and he said, "I'd like to have you plant those trees." And the gardener said, "I wouldn't do that," he said, "it takes a hundred years for those trees to flower." The general said, "Well, in that case, plant them this afternoon."

Well, it's not going to take 100 years for this country to reach its full flower. It can be done in this decade, but if it's going to be done in this decade, it has to be done tonight. I ask your help.

Thank you.

(Editor's note: Kennedy referred to a number of people in his speech. Bert T. Combs was the governor of Kentucky. Wilson W. Wyatt was the lieutenant governor and Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate. Frank W. Burke was a House member from Kentucky, as were Carl D. Perkins, Frank Chelf, John C. Watts, William H. Natcher, and Frank A. Stubblefield. Winfield K. Denton was a House member from Indiana. Barry Goldwater was a Republican senator from Arizona who would emerge as the Republican nominee for president in 1964.)

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JFK campaign speech in Louisville

Campaigning in the 1962 mid-term elections, President John F. Kennedy came to Louisville on Oct. 13, 1962, to help Kentucky and southern Indiana Democratic lawmakers and Democratic candidates.